Rec'la Incident
The Rec'la Incident was a short battle during the Clone Wars that damaged the relationship between the Galactic Republic and the Verpine Technocracy. Named after the transport Rec'la, the same vessel was captured by Verpine who had sided with the Separatist and was intended to do a suicide run on Anaxes. Luckily, it was foiled by the Republic Third Army in the orbit of Castell who boarded the transport and recaptured it, along with the several tons of explosives that were on board. Background The Verpine Technocracy, also known as the Verpine Hive, were an insectoid species that inhabited the Roche system. They remained as an ally to the Galactic Republic for the entirety of the war and were the principal supplier and also designer of the V-19 Torrent starfighter. Despite this, a small group of Verpine led by the Verpine Bal'lur managed to be seduced by the CIS's propaganda and plotted to make a strike against the Republic in hopes of severing the trust between the Technocracy and the Republic. To do this, they had some Verpine overlook the fact that several tons of explosives and small arms were loaded onto the transport, enough to arm twenty-three Verpine and enough explosive to vaporize a 20-kilometer radius. The Rec'la itself was a Akila'lir-class transport, a local design produced by the Technocracy, which has no defensive armament of any sort and a crew of only 12 for a passenger complement of around 160. For the trip it was commanded by Captain Munduon. Battle Capture of the Rec'la While on the hyperspace jump between Vurdon Ka and Castell Bal'lur and a group of 22 Verpine went to the cargo hold. There, they got their weapons that were smuggled on which was composed of a mix of civilian rifles, pistols, and shotguns along with a few military-grade automatic weapons. Only two security officers were present for the trip and both were quickly killed by the Separatist partisans before the bridge was swarmed. In the ensuing firefight, a single Verpine separatist was left killed while the captain, first officer, and several other crew members were killed leaving only four. These four were taken hostage, along with the passengers, as they made their way to Anaxes. Unbeknownst to the separatist, the communications officer had managed to send out distress call before being gunned down. Castell System In the Castell system the Arquitens-class light cruiser Beloven, commanded by Captain Guro Adween, was already ready to intercept the transport and did so as the transport entered the orbit of Castell. Upon the cruiser sending a transmission for the transpor to halt, the Rec'la attempted to make a break for it. Being both defenseless and slow, the cruiser targeted its engines with its laser canons and knocked them out. While negotiations were underway with the crippled craft and its Separatist crew, the additional light cruisers Rantax, commanded by Captain Forn Dodona, and Alkar, commanded by Captain Cresc Minkul, arrived to assist in boarding operations in the case it went wrong. Boarding As expected, the Verpine separatist refused any attempts at negotiation and forced the Republic's hand in boarding. A team of 30 clone troopers, commanded by CC-54/91-2834 from the Rantax, were sent aboard by the three cruisers. Some of the Verpine who had been taken as hostages took this chance to attack the Separatist while others were harmed, or even killed such in the case of Kal'lik, in the crossfire. The remaining crew attempted to resist at this point but it ended in two of them being killed and one of them being wounded. By the time the battle had ended, there was substanstial interior damage to the vessel due to the mishandling of explosives by the separatist and five of the passengers had been killed along with ten of the crew. Three clone troopers were also killed, along with seventeen of the twenty-three Verpine including Bal'lur. Aftermath The Pelta-class frigate Guri'idor arrived after the battle to handle the wounded Verpine civilians and clone troopers. They held the wounded until the arrival of another Akila'lir-class transport, the Ru'iju, and the Guon-class cruiser, the Ala'ira, to transport the surviving Verpine civilians and the separatist prisoners, respectively, back to the Roche system. The damaged Rec'la was towed back to Nickel One by the Ala'ira. The incident had a short impact on the relations between the Verpine and the Republic. The Technocracy's transports were temporarily put on hold while an investigation went underway to find any corruption within the Hive after it was found out that explosives and weaponry had been smuggled on board. Verpine mechanics in the field were temporarily looked at in suspicion by the Republic, but ultimately the V-19 Torrent supply was too vital for the Republic to do anything substantially damaging to their relations.